Pundits have been predicting a merger of TV and the Internet for years. And there have in fact been many attempts to get it right including Microsoft’s ill-fated WebTV.
Today a number of companies, including Apple and Yahoo, have offerings that connect TV viewers with Internet content. Now Datamation reports on a major tech partnership designed to bring the Internet to TV viewers more broadly.
It
’
s not exactly a Google TV, but an auxiliary device to get Internet content and applications on TV screens. It wouldn
’
t be the first such effort. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), for instance, offers something similar with its Apple TV unit which has gone through several iterations and which both CEO Steve Jobs and COO Tim Cook have described as a
“
hobby
”
or experiment as it tests the market.
The alliance between Intel, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Sony, first reported Thursday in the New York Times, also includes Logitech, which has been tapped for controllers and peripheral devices such as speakers and a mini-keyboard.
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) and Google declined to comment on the report. The Times story said Google will offer an open platform for developers based on Android, the open source operating system that powers the Nexus One, Droid and other mobile devices.